Thursday, March 19, 2015

New budget passed with little input from Native American Nations will have drastic consequences

New budget passed with little input from Native American Nations will
have drastic consequences

STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX – The Native American members of the
House of Representatives made the following statements regarding the budget
that Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law on March 12, 2015:

Rep. Jennifer
Benally, D-Tuba City (District 7)

“The cuts to
education in this budget are detrimental to Arizona and to Native American
communities. In our state, there are 33 school districts located within Native
American Nations. These districts will lose nearly $10 million in state
funding. Schools rely on this money to maintain facilities and to buy classroom
supplies. Instead of investing in schools in Arizona and in Native American
Nations, this budget prioritizes special interest tax handouts. This is especially
troubling because Native American students have some of the highest school
dropout rates in the state. The cuts to education funding are part of a
shortsighted economic strategy that has failed in the past and will continue to
fail. Without properly educating our children, how are we going to attract new
industries to Arizona? This budget isn't logical, and it punishes
families.”

Rep. Sally
Ann Gonzales, D-Tucson (District 3)

“The choices
reflected in the Republican budget jeopardize the safety of our children. It
does not fund foster care caseload growth or emergency placement of children in
group homes at a time when about 1,300 Native American children are in
out-of-home care for their safety. The budget also cuts $4 million
from child care subsidies. This cut will be compensated for with federal money
but the loss means about 1,000 additional children per month will not receive
child care. There are nearly 2,000 Native American children who currently
benefit from these subsidies. Imagine how many more could be served if the
Republicans had made this program a priority? This budget is the result of bad
choices.”

Rep.
Albert Hale, D-St. Michaels, (District 7)

“After an
all-night session which resulted in hasty decisions being made in the dark of
night, the Legislature adopted a
Republican-developed budget that they claim is balanced and
supposedly adds money to education. However, upon review, the adopted budget
contains many funding cuts that will bring hardship to our children,
our elderly, our families in need of assistance, and our educational systems.
The budget is ‘balanced’ on the backs of children, elderly, and the needy. Many
of the costs are shifted to the counties and local governments. The budget will
cause education programs, and programs for the elderly and children to again
greatly reduce the services they provide. Funding for these programs has
already been cut to the bone in prior years. Rather than finding new ways to
increase our revenues and minimize cuts, we chose only to cut
funding. More egregious is, rather than increasing our revenues or
passing laws to accommodate that, we continue to give money away
through tax credits and handouts to special interest groups.”

Rep.
Victoria Steele, D-Tucson (District 9)

“This budget has a disproportionately negative
impact on Native American Tribes and Nations in Arizona. It was pushed through
the legislative process quickly and secretively. It included a new cap on the
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program that will ultimately take $9
million from Arizona’s most vulnerable families. The Department of Economic
Security estimates that almost 200 Native American families will be
affected. It is clear that their needs are not being recognized by
this budget, and the fact that the tribes were never consulted about key parts
could be seen as a sign of disrespect.”

For more
information on the budget impacts on Native Americans in Arizona, please see
the attached fact sheet or go to www.azhousedemocrats.com.

-30-

Impacts of the Fiscal
Year 2016 Arizona State Budget on Native Americans

On March 7,
2015 The Legislature passed and on March 12, 2015 the governor signed a $9.1
billion budget that includes $74 million in revenue increases, $220 million in
fund transfers, $176 million in spending increases and $497 million in spending
reductions. The budget projects an
ending cash balance of $451 thousand in Fiscal Year 2016 and uses $113 million
from the Rainy Day Fund to help eliminate a $148 million deficit in FY15.

K-12 cuts – The policy decisions in this budget
represent $170 million in funding reductions in FY16 and $417 million over the
next two years. Some of the specific
cuts include:

§$116.5 million
cut to Additional Assistance: This is a cut to
both District Additional Assistance [$113.5 million] and Charter Additional
Assistance [$3 million]. This funding is designed to provide schools with
the resources to maintain facilities, purchase classroom supplies, and augment
Maintenance and Operations dollars for classroom spending.

oThere are 33 school districts located within Indian Reservations.
This reduction would represent $9.7 million in cuts to those districts.

oIn 2013, Native American students made up to 5 percent of the state
student enrollment.

oThe percent
of Native American students passing AIMS in either reading or mathematics was
the lowest of the racial/ethnic groups. However, Native American students
showed the second highest increase (7 percent) in average percent passing in
reading from 2010 to 2013.

oNative American students showed higher dropout rates than all other
racial/ethnic groups.

§$22 million
repeal of the Student Success Formula. This was a newly
created performance funding model that rewarded schools for student gains and
high school graduations. This funding was transferred to the School
Facilities Board to serve as collateral for charter schools seeking favorable
financing.

oThere are 33 school districts located within Indian Reservations.
This reduction represents $1.5 million in cuts to those
districts.

oBreak
down of the 33 school districts by
letter grades:

§7 rated B school
districts

§13 rated C school
districts

§13 rated D school
districts

§$30
million reduction to
JTED formula funding by 7.5 percent for students attending at a satellite
campus beginning in FY17. The reduction
would affect districts and JTEDs.

oJTEDs located within Indian
Reservations:

§There is only one centralized JTED campus located on the Navajo
Indian Reservation. (N.A.T.I.V.E. JTED)

§This means that the eight satellite campuses will lose JTED funding
and only receive 92.5 percent
of the BSL funding for a student who is concurrently enrolled in a JTED and
district high school.

University Cuts

The
Legislative budget continues an ongoing trend of decreased state investment in
the three state universities. Funding is
reduced by $99 million and
distributed proportionally to each university based on student count

§UA:
$28 million NAU: $17 million ASU: $53 million

In
the fall of 2013, 1,983 [1.6 percent] of undergraduate students enrolled
in the Arizona public universities were Native American students.

During
the 2012-13 academic years, 443 Native American students were awarded
bachelor’s degrees [1.7 percent of all undergrads graduating].

Community College Cuts

The
Legislative budget also eliminates all state funding for Pima Community College
District and Maricopa Community College District. The total reduction equates to $16 million spread between PCCS and
MCCD.

§Pima:
$7 million Maricopa: $8 million

oAt Pima Community College only 3 percent of students taking credit
courses, adult education or attending classes at their center for training
development, self-identified as Native American

§For 2013-14, only 1 percent of students receiving an Associate’s
Degree and 1 percent receiving a certificate were Native American

oStatewide, 7,703 Native American students were enrolled in fall of 2012
at the state’s 10 community college districts.

§These students comprise about 3.5 percent of total statewide
enrollment.

oThese cuts are likely to lead to increases in both university and
community college tuition, making higher education more unaffordable for a
group that is dramatically underrepresented in our higher education system

Health and Human
Services

Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System
(AHCCCS) 2 percent “fee” and co-pays
– This budget would also require AHCCCS to apply for waivers from the federal
government to impose the following statutory changes:

1.Requires
adult Medicaid enrollees up to 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Limit (FPL)
to pay a premium of 2 percent of their income,

2.Allows providers to charge co-pays of
up to $25 for non-emergency use of the emergency room, and

Premiums: This
change will affect the working poor the most: 2 percent income premium will
hurt families already struggling to make ends meet. The average premium would be $320 for
a family of 2 earning $16,000. This change is only estimated to create $1.1 million
in savings in FY17

As of January 2015, 9.6 percent
of AHCCCS recipients were Native American

TANF
12-month life time limit
– The Legislative budget imposes a 1
Year limit on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Cash Assistance in
FY17. This hits poor moms and kids hard:
75 percent (20,400) of the people participating in cash assistance are
children; the remaining 25 percent are their parents.

oThe Department of Economic Security estimates that approximately 175
Native American households would lose benefits.

oA number of
Native American Tribes have exercised the option to develop a TANF Program and
to submit their proposal to the federal government for approval. Currently, the
following Native American Tribes have federally-approved TANF Programs:

Department
of Child Safety – This
budget reverts $5.5 million in unused transition funding back to the General Fund
instead of appropriating it to handle growth in caseloads or to address the
15,000-case backlog.

§The Governor’s budget recommended $3.3
million for caseload growth. The
agency currently has a 15,000 case backlog and receives thousands of reports of
child neglect and abuse annually.

§This budget does not fund foster case caseload growth, child care
caseload growth or emergency placement of children in group homes.

§The Governor’s budget proposed $3.4 million for foster care caseloads and
$2.2 million for
emergency placement of children in group homes and $3.3 million for child care caseload and
NONE of these items were funded in the Legislative budget

As of September 30,
2014, there were 1,336 American Indian children in out-of-home
placement. This represents 7.9 percent of the current total
out-of-home population of 16,900 children.

Childcare – The Legislative budget cuts $4 million
from Child Care subsidies and backfills the loss with Federal funds. The $4 million cut to the program prevents an
additional 1,000 kids per month from getting childcare.

oDES currently has 30,006 children currently authorized for child
care services. 1,933 of these children are coded as Native American. The
Department does not differentiate on vs. off tribal lands, only the race.

County Cost Shifts

The FY2016 budget includes several provisions that shift
costs to cities, towns and counties. The
largest shift to municipalities and counties is in the form of a $21 million
fee split between cities/towns [$14 million] and counties [$7 million] to fund
the operations of the Arizona Department of Revenue. One other key change would
require counties to pay 25 percent of the cost of juveniles housed at the
Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections.
This is expected to have a statewide cost to counties of $12 million.
The overall impact of ongoing and newly enacted cost shifts is $62 million.

oHere are the impacts to counties serving Native American populations:

§Apache: $416,000

§Coconino: $1.4 million

§Gila: $631,000

§Graham: $745,000

§Pima: $16 million

§Yavapai: $2.4 million

Agency Consolidations

This
budget also includes 3 separate agency consolidations including the transfer of
the Department of Racing into the Department of Gaming. The consolidation would
be effective on either July 1, 2015, or the effective date of the Budget Reconciliation
Bill, whichever is later.

oThe Tribes were never
consulted about a proposed consolidation of an agency that they completely fund, with an agency that
receives its revenues from state resources. In addition, the Department of
Gaming only exists because of the partnership, otherwise known as the compact,
between two sovereigns; the State and the Tribes. The consolidation merges two
very different entities, Tribal Governments and commercial racing, into one agency.